By IANS
Agartala : The Tripura Women’s Commission (TWC) has asked the local media to be sensitive while reporting about rape and other crimes against women after a sensational media report about an alleged rape incident led to a Tripura village excommunicating the entire family of the ‘victim’.
“A section of the media in Tripura recently reported that a woman was gang-raped at Charilam in western Tripura after tying her husband to a tree,” said Tapati Chakraborty, TWC chairperson, here Friday.
A TWC team went to Charilam, 35 km from the capital city Agartala, to investigate the incident early this week and found that the story was not true.
“The couple told the commission that the story was false and that some people only humiliated them,” Chakraborty said.
But after the media reports, which appeared last week, the village panchayat decided to excommunicate the couple and their children. “Now the family is homeless,” the commission chief said.
The commission has sanctioned funds for the family to build a new home in a different locality and asked the panchayat to cooperate.
The commission also issued an advertisement in local newspapers Friday, urging the media houses to be careful while reporting such sensitive issues that have the potential to create social discord.